Oh, Canada!

I'm celebrating Canada Day this year, by awarding my first ever Favorite Canadian award. The nomination process is rigorous ("Really? X is Canadian?"), and the voting is done by a panel of incredibly discerning judges (read: me). It's really the best way of making good decisions.

The 2010 Favorite Canadian Award goes to, drumroll please...

Michael Bublé!

I saw him for the first time on the Graham Norton show this past fall, while Mom was indulging in a little daytime TV. He was cute enough, but it was when I heard him sing that I was *instantly* transformed into the giggly 13-year old girl who had just heard Frank Sinatra sing for the first time again. Since it was between November 1st and December 25th, I couldn't rush out and buy his CD.

(I'm - evidently - pretty hard to shop for, so the family has requested that I not make purchases just before my birthday through Christmas.)

At some point after Christmas, I picked up his CDs. All of them. He's covered most of my favorite Frank Sinatra standards, and a few songs from other folks that I really liked. I may have played the Bublé playlist a thousand times in a week. If it was a record, it would have worn out; if it was a cassette tape, it would have spaghetti-ed. All hail digital music!

Andrew, ever the sly one, bought me tickets to the Bublé concert in Oakland, which he gave me for Valentine's Day. Michael Bublé is the ultimate performer, and even after four encores, I was left wishing the concert was just a *little* bit longer. Might I add that seeing him dressed as a Mountie during the Olympics wasn't bad, either. Just saying. Who doesn't love a man in uniform?

What really locked him in as the winner of the 2010 Favorite Canadian award was his appearance on SNL. (If you haven't seen it, check out the Hamm and Bublé sketch.) Well done, Michael!

Not to be forgotten, but the Honorable mentions for the 2010 Favorite Canadian award include The Savvy Girls, Ryan Reynolds' abs, and Alanis Morissette (for her performance on Season 5 of Weeds).